The Month in Review -- December

I promised you last month that we would have a more homeschool-ish month, this.  At the time I was thinking about the "school" part of that word, but actually it is the "home" part which we really enjoy, and which is really more noteworthy!  And after all, our best lessons are from life itself.

In December:

We got up with the sun.  It rained that afternoon.

Red sky at night
Sailor's delight
Red sky at morning
Sailors take warning

 

We visited our local cram-packed craft shop.  Crafty Booklover is into drawing, making cards, making wee felt dolls, and making something else I can't mention here because someone's birthday is coming up, and she wouldn't want her friend to know what she is getting.

Emily made a clock, all by herself!

We preached (not me, my DH) and sang at the nursing home.

When she discovered her new unit in Rod and Staff's geography was about Japan, Carrotlover (who, with her sister, Booklover, Hates textbook reading and questions) cried with frustration and disinterest.  But the stealthy mother quietly tossed some good library picture books with Japanese settings into the living room book basket. At lunch time Carrotlover arranged a private Japanese dining room scene for herself, complete with low table, cushion to kneel on,  a set of make-shift chopsticks, and some green "tea".  I, of course, being the great mom that I am, contributed a couple of rice balls and a slice of bacon served on a banana leaf platter, and an authentic oriental tea pot and cup. Well, nothing that fun could stay private for long.  She ended up sharing her table (and her rice) with her sister.  

Booklover demonstrated what she learned in Robert Krampf's science class.

We baked our best ever, most favorite cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Cremes. As you can see, they don't last long!

After working up to 70 wpm on the qwerty keyboard, Alizona decided to learn the Dvorak keyboard.  She is up to 30 wpm on Dvorak, and her brain is now entirely scrambled, lol.  Dvorak is faster, and it drives her crazy that it was not set as the standard.  But no one uses it, so what is a girl to do?

Two of our resident artists were busy at work:

Go here for more art by Amy.

We helped our elderly friend get her groceries.

And we celebrated yet ANOTHER birthday! Carrotlover turned nine. I am suffering the mother's aging-children syndrome.  One more in January, then we will be done with kid birthdays around here until next October.

We enjoyed a bit of snow -- from a distance.

We spent some time on a small farm, with some little, adorable, one-day-old goat kids.  I discovered that although NOTHING will grow on our lot except cactus, it IS possible for some people to grow all manner of veggies here.  Especially those who are on higher elevations. At this time of year, this hobby farm produces broccoli, onions, winter squash, collards, carrots, and many different fruit trees, plus alfalfa to feed some of the farm-y animals who live on the one acre: sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, pheasants,  bees, two BIG dogs, and five barn cats. That was a blast!  For the full story and photos, see here, at Alizona's blog. 

The six of us consumed twenty-one POUNDS of sweet clementines!   Well?  They're better for us than fudge!!  When I saw them priced at $2.50 for a three-pound bag, I grabbed up a couple of arm loads. They have been soooo good this year!

What month would be complete without a trip or two or three, or more, to the library?  Amy, this is the little kids' section!

AND, congratulate Monocogman for making his goal of 4000 on- and off-road cycling miles this year! Whoohoo!! (Due to his injury his goal was reduced this year, but he is still very manly, and he is still my hero!)   Will he go for 4600 next year?  100 miles for each year of his life.  I can't wait to see what he is going to do when he is eighty-seven, LOL.

We only have a few hours of December left to go.  If anything exciting happens, I'll let you know next month!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness;
Psalm 65:11

 

New Year's Eve Treats

THIS RECIPE HAS BEEN UPDATED!  **See below.

Come on, now, don't start that diet just yet.  There are too many goodies to consume before the year's out!  Our little family is going to stay up til midnight Wednesday, in a test to see if we all still like each other that late at night.   We have a big Monopoly tourny planned, as well as reading aloud from the Terrestria Chronicles (Ed Dunlop) and maybe some of The Home Ranch (Ralph Moody), watching an S.M.Davis DVD, other activities to be announced, and eating some good stuff.  We'll start out with pizza, then maybe some chocolatey sort of something, and DEFINITELY some of this super yummy, super easy, home-made microwave caramel-corn!  A friend of mine introduced me to this many years ago, and I kind of forgot about it.  Today I looked up the recipe and gave it a try. Oh my.  This is so good.  You just gotta try it.  Here's what was left of my trial batch after five minutes:

It's a good thing I have a family, or else I would have consumed the entire batch myself.  Here's the recipe, from allrecipes.com:

Microwave Caramel Corn

2 bags of popped microwave popcorn (Act II is great)
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C margarine or butter (butter is better, of course)
1/4 C light corn syrup or honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

Place the popped porcorn into a large bowl and set aside.  In a 2 qt. heat-proof glass dish, combine the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and vanilla.  Heat for 2 minutes in the micro*, then take out and stir well.  Put it back in and cook for another 1 1/2 minutes.  Remove from micro and stir in the baking soda. (Don't skip this step!)

Pour the syrup over the popcorn and mix well.  Spray a brown paper bag with non-stick spray, and pour the popcorn mixture in.  Turn the top down a couple of times to close the bag. (I did this in a regular sized grocery bag but I cut off the top and had to crumple it to make it fit the turntable in the microwave.) Place in micro and cook for one minute.  Remove, shake, flip the bag over, and return it to the micro.  Cook one minute more. Dump the popcorn out onto waxed paper to cool untl the caramel is set.  Store in an airtight container, if you get that far.

You can half this recipe easily and use just one bag of popcorn, but why would you want to?  And you could add pecans and drizzle the finished product with chocolate...   For more super easy, wonderful-good treats, visit Cooking With the Preacher's Wife.

*1500 watt microwave
**  I forgot to tell you that I made only half the batch in that big bag!

How Shall We Order the Child? ~ Part One

In Judges 13 begins the story of Samson.  Like many other new parents, Samson’s mother and father desired to have the Lord tell them exactly how they were to raise this child.  “God, what is your will? How shall we diaper him, Lord? Cloth or disposable?  How should we spank correctly? Private school or public school, Lord? How can I teach him to respect and obey me?  And, Lord, how shall I teach him to respect and obey YOU?”

The response the Lord gave to Manoah and his wife was, I am certain, not the kind of answer they were expecting to hear. Here is their conversation, in short, in Judges 13:12-14:

“How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.”

The answer to the question, how shall we order the child was, in essence, that the mother was to keep herself holy and separated and obedient unto the Lord!  The diapering method and the child’s training and discipline were not going to be nearly as important in the life of that child as the influence of a godly mother was going to be!

To me, this is a sobering truth. No amount of correcting, training, reading aloud, giving of advice, counseling, yelling, spoiling, caressing, or reasoning with my child will have a greater influence in his/her life than will my example as a mother who is wholly given to the Lord.  How will my child know that I love the Lord who gave him to me?  He will know when he sees me committed to reading (and obeying) my Bible.  He will know when I consistently fall to my knees in prayer, rather than worrying or fretting.  He will know when he sees that I am committed to learning and memorizing and acting upon God’s word.  He will know when he sees that I am repentant –not making excuses-- when I do wrong.  He will know when I bundle him up and take him and his siblings to church on a cold, sleepy morning.  He will know when I accept a difficult situation as if it is from the Lord, and thank him for it.  He will know when he hears me break out into singing God’s praises.  He will know, because in my consecration to the Lord I draw my child to the Lord.

A six-foot shelf full of child-training books will not teach me to raise my children the way living a godly life will.  “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day,” Proverbs 4:19.   The closer I get to the Lord, the more I obey his Word and seek his face, the clearer will be God’s will for my child’s upbringing.

Rather than fretting over whether God wants my girls to have music lessons, or how to get them to apply themselves to their schoolwork, or when is a decent hour for bed-time for my children, I am resolved instead to keep fellowship with God.  His working in MY heart and in MY life is the answer to all my questions concerning the children he has blessed me with!

Cat Patrol

In consideration of those of you who adore cats, I will warn you that you may not want to read this post.  We live in a town that has the largest number of cats and little kicker dogs than I have ever seen in one place in America.  The constant yipping and yowling gets on one's nerves, particularly when that yipping or yowling is going on right under the bedroom window at 4:30 a.m.  There is no solution to the yipping, that I am aware of, except for chocolate.  But I do not poison people's pets, regardless of how rude those pet owners are, to ignore the incessant noise that is coming from their own animal.

For the yowling, however, there are solutions.  Some options:
1. Shoot the offending cat.
2. Install a sprinkler system and keep it running.
3. Plant Coleus canina, known by most as Scaredy Cat, around the perimeter of the house.
4. Install an cat-repelling electronic device.
5. Set a cat trap.
None of these options are going to work here.  So we devised our own method:

After three nights in a row of having our sweet sleep interrupted by the neighbors' screaming, wailing,  yowling felines, Mr. Cat-Hater, here,  is prepared for war.  Wearing a headlamp (because we forgot to do this in the daytime) and wielding a spray bottle filled with ammonia, he is headed for the front lines.  He will not be spraying ammonia on the cats but around the perimeter of our lot. This will work for quite a while, maybe even until the next rain (which we don't plan to see around here for some time).  Tonight those rotten cats will be hosting their nocturnal forays on someone else's property.

12/17 UPDATE:  It worked! No more yowling cats!

Fatal Decision

 

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Anybody else have a non-stop talking five year old?  My, oh my.  I love her dearly, but my ears get so tired!  I have been trying to tell her lately that if she would only talk when she really has something to say, we all would be more interested in hearing her speak. 

Well, for some reason Emily has been afraid to go outside by herself, because "bad guys" might get her.  (Remember the bad guys in bathing suits? This is related, wait and see.)  I don't know where she got this idea.   But  she has figured out how not to be kidnapped: "Mom, if bad guys tried to kidnap me, I would tell them, 'You don't want to kidnap me, I talk ALL THE TIME!' " LOL!  Good strategy. 

Photo for the Day

Hee Hee

My daughter asked me early this morning, "Mom, why are all the roofs in the neighborhood bluish white?  Where did all the brown roofs go?" At the moment I was preoccupied and thought she was dreaming things.  Later, after the sun had been out for a bit, she looked out the window again and said, "What is all that wet stuff??"  I looked where she was pointing and I burst out laughing, "That's FROST!!"  LOL  We have true desert kids.  I am reminded of Emily two years ago stating, "I hate trees!"  Poor little souls! ...But just about the time I want to be rescued from this hot desolation, I remember the finer points about living in the desert.  Being unfamiliar with frost is one of them!